Golems in tow, Gorren rushed the way he had come. He threw mental alarms everywhere while he did, while trying to stifle the rising panic at the same time. His works! His prototypes! His mice! They were all in the sanctum!

Another tremor made him redouble his pace. He was so agitated that he didn’t even stop to question how in the hells something had managed to sneak in without alerting any of his defenses.

Ignoring the panicking Gremlins Acolytes being herded away by the golems, he slipped right through the still opening doors.

Another tremor hit, making him stumble.

It comes from the forge!, he realized with dismay.

He found the place in complete disarray. The forges had been ripped open, allowing the magical flames they contained to spread unchecked. A loose carpet of red-hot coals covered the floor, alongside half-melted tools and anvils.

Gorren threw only a cursory glance at the inferno, but froze when he saw that the lump of metal was gone from its place over the Arcanobulum.

My Mana Core! Who dared take it?!?!

Outrage warring with panic, he pushed the flames away with a wave of mind force and dashed for the other room.

The prototypes chamber was a disaster. All the half-finished golems had been smashed to pieces, rock and iron and wooden fragments now mixing together like a tornado had raged there until a moment ago.

Gorren half-choked at the sight, but his attention was quickly snatched by what was happening at the center of the chamber.

His work in progress, the iron giant, was moving!

The colossus flailed awkwardly with its massive arms like it was trying to swat a fly away but wasn‘t sure how to use its limb properly. The lump of shining metal had been shoved into its iron chest, the plates bending around it.

Gorren jumped. The Mana Core had been inserted in the frame! But… but it wasn’t finished yet! It was unstable! They would both end up ruined!

He was about to run toward his creation when he finally noticed what the golem was trying to push away.

A small creature, the size of a child, clung tightly to its shoulder. It looked like a clump of flames, but Gorren could barely make out humanoid limbs.

What the fuck is that now?!?

While he watched, the golem managed to bring down an arm on his shoulder. The small creature cried something with a shrill voice. There were a blast and a flash of light. Another tremor shook the room, forcing him to hold at the wall. Blinking spots away, he saw with astonishment that the creature still clung at its position, while the golem’s arm showed a brand new scorched mark.

Gorren gaped. It could repel his golem’s blows?

The golem’s angered energy filled the chamber like the heat from a roaring fire, but he could still feel the aura of the small creature. Even while not being as massive, it was powerful and savage, an elemental force unbound and raw.

Fascination fell like a spell, making him forget both panic and rage. An elemental, here? But how? Elementals needed a source from which to spawn, and he had made sure that his forges didn’t reach the alignments that would allow it. And even if, that specimen was too powerful. Someone had to have summoned it. But how? He should have perceived it!

Mind running for explanations, he remained watching.

The golem flailed madly, attempting to get off its opponent, that held like a stubborn mouse to a raging bull. Its massive arms swept the rubble, sending chunks of stone and wood to smash against the walls. Splinters peppered the golems remains like hail.

The fire creature cried and flashed again, bursting into a flare of flame and heat. The golem was staggered by the blow, its shoulder a scorched ruin by now, and redoubled its flailing. But its movements were uncoordinated, like a toddler still trying to learn how to use his limbs, and couldn’t reach its opponent, that kept scuttling to avoid being crushed.

Suddenly, the frame holding the golem, eaten by flame and shaken by its occupant’s efforts, gave in to the abuse. With a shriek of tortured metal, the iron giant came crashing down alongside a shower of tumbling wood and broken iron. The blow made the entire chamber tremble. Chunks of rubble and wood were launched in the air, followed by a dust cloud that engulfed everything.

Gorren had launched a cry of dismay at the sight of his creation unraveling, but now he just stood on his toes, feverishly trying to find the two opponents amidst all the smoke. He heard another cry, a voice mixed with the roar of flame, then the sound of stone being shattered.

A moment later, the dust settled, showing the little fire creature as it stood atop the ruined remains of the golem, its arm triumphantly holding a fragment of the Mana Core aloft.

“I won!” She cried with a shrill voice. “I am the greatest! I am the strongest!” And, like she wanted to prove the point further, she grabbed hold of the fragment with both hands. Her fingers erupted with flame, and the poor Mana Core, battered and broken, shattered into pieces.

Gorren was stunned. No, more than stunned. He couldn’t believe his own eyes.

The creature that had just destroyed his masterpiece had the aspect of a child, that is, if a human child was a radiant red like a lump of coal left over the fire and had mouth and eyes filled with raging golden light. Also, a mane of actual fire made for her hair, running down her back and down to her ankles.

But the most haunting thing to hit Gorren was the sheer sense of recognition. He knew that creature. In fact, he knew it very well, maybe even better than she knew herself. That, he felt with the weight of certainty, but the reason why eluded him.

The fire-child’s head snapped toward him. Gorren was taken aback by the sheer intensity of the childish hatred he saw in those golden eyes.

His surprised disarray only increased when the creature slammed open her mouth and, actual fire jetting out of it, screeched, with a voice that was like the wind howling across a forest in fire, and just as angry.

“I have defeated it!” She shouted. “I have defeated it! You were wrong!”

Instincts screaming alarm, Gorren barely managed to throw out a hand, summoning a shield around himself, that the fire-child shot toward him like a meteor. The blow hit him hard, so powerful that he was showed back despite his defense. He smacked against the door frame, hissing as the corner dug into his back, but managed to crouch instead of falling.

An angry, juvenile face, features only a simplification of a human‘s, whooshed across his vision, followed by a wave of heat that forced him to shield his eyes with an arm.

When he managed to see again, the fire-child was nowhere in sight, but an explosion from the forge told him where she had gone.

Wide-eyed, he whirled around, jumping back into the forge. The fire-creature stomped between the ruins of the furnaces, ignoring the flames licking her skin.

“You were wrong! You were wrong!” She screeched, pelting him with hot coals like they were snowballs.

Gorren blocked them mid-air or waved them away, and seeing that her efforts were useless, the fire-child cried in frustration. She actually crammed her mouth with some of the searing coals, before shooting out of the door.

Still reeling with surprise, Gorren rushed to follow. That thing was… but no, it couldn’t be! It was impossible, ludicrous, preposterous!

I need to know! I need to see!

With a jolt of dismay, he realized the direction the fire creature had run away to.

“Do not hurt her!” He shouted, throwing the command both through voice and mind. “Just capture her! Do not hurt her!”

His response from the cold, blocky half-minds of the golems was a wave of confusion. He gritted his teeth and ran faster.

Answering his summons of earlier, the golems standing by the main doors of the inner compound had activated. Under the careful guidance of the Gorrenite Sentinels, they had assembled into a war formation that a full contingent of veteran soldiers and warmages would have probably failed to break. Towering Guardians stood side by side, their massive shields forming rows of walls that weren’t at shame if compared to those of a castle. Swarming at their feet, Snatchers and Jaws silently waited for the prey that, by ability or luck, would manage to escape the giants’ clubs. Behind the formation, a group of Magician stood poised like ballerinas waiting for the curtain’s call, the tenuous glow surrounding their pointed limbs the only signal of their preparation.

All together, this brigade of golems could have held at bay an invading army. In that moment, conflicting strings of orders warred through their arcane programmings, effectively immobilizing them.

Truth was, the Sentinels in charge, as advanced as they were, hadn’t been built with something like “capture” in mind. They knew attack and defense, but only for deadly purposes. Securely retrieving a creature was beyond them, their proto-minds struggling and failing to pick the correct course of action.

That hadn’t stopped the fire-child, that, as Gorren emerged running from the door, was wading through the motionless army, a shrieking, raging ball of fire smashing to pieces every golem she could lay her flaming little hands on. Already a dozen golems had felt her ministrations, and she didn’t seem ready to stop anytime soon.

Gorren took just a moment to lament the loss of his works.

Throwing his hands out, he launched a frantic wave of power, The spell soared above the golems and made a grab for the fire-child. She cried as the Mana coiled around her. Her flames snapped and flailed like angry tongues.

Gorren grunted at the heavy resistance. It was like trying to rein a raging bull in with a fishing net.

Hissing through gritted teeth, he pumped Mana in the coils while sending out more. By her part, the fire-child struggled furiously. Crying and hissing like an angry cat, she burned and broke the arcane bonds seeking to subdue her.

“I won’t be tamed!” She screamed, and her voice was accompanied by a wave of blistering heat. Gorren felt his beard curl, the hair blackening and smoking, but didn’t let go. His coils entangled the creature more and more, snapping back in place faster that she could burn them.

Suddenly, the fire-child, maybe realizing that her efforts were vain, stopped struggling and gathered into a ball. Gorren had barely the time to frown deeper, that she erupted into a flash of blinding light.

Whatever was happening to his body, it had made his senses sharper. All of them, including his sight.

His vision exploded into a chaos of whirling spots and agony. He fell to the ground with a shriek, frantically clutching at his eyes. He heard a triumphant cry, followed by a gust of scorching wind.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he summoned his inner energy and splashed his damaged eyes with healing. His vision returned immediately, showing him more broken golems and not a fire-child on sight.

Another tremor shook the chamber, followed by another blast, coming from behind him, from beyond the double doors.

Gorren felt a cold sweat coat his forehead. That fire-menace had returned into his inner sanctum!

Fear of more disasters overriding his curiosity, he dashed back inside, eyes wide with fright. He ignored the golems waddling out, finally managing to unclog their brains enough to at least do that, and ran as fast as his little legs allowed him to.

He crossed his private laboratories and medical room, climbed stairs and traversed the study room. Wherever he went, he found a trail of devastation, like a small comet had made its way through the place. Floors, ceilings and walls showed scorched marks. Splintered tables, overturned cabinets laying over their spilled contents and broken glassware formed a trail, showing the direction that his quarry had taken. In the distance, he could hear more blasts.

Terror, lessened only slightly by seeing Magda and her children in their cage, terrified but alive, hit him like a punch. The fire-thing was running towards the Crucible!

Forget that the Crucible was unreplaceable, both as a source of material and an object of study. He had only vague ideas of what could happen if that point of transition between sublime energies was to be attacked. None of the outcomes he could come up with were pleasant, with the worst being downright catastrophic. He was heart-wrenchingly reminded of the time he had first opened his way into the Crux.

Heart hammering in his throat, he finally reached the place.

The chamber of the Crucible was much larger than what it was when he had first appeared in it. Gorren had transformed it into his own personal sanctuary to Ur, and dedicated to it the attention to details that the rest of his compound didn’t get.

Now, it was in chaos.

The primal statues of the God, that had flanked the walls in two ordinated rows, had been defaced. Scorch marks, missing limbs, wounded stone, of one remained only a chipped basement covered with rubble. The golden and blue paint decoring the walls had peeled back from the heat, flaking away there and then to show naked stone. The once luscious carpet was a smoldering, smoking wreck.

Only the Crucible properly looked untouched. The portal, that before had occupied the entire wall, was contained by an arch that seemed wrought out of bone. Ancient formulae had been carved over the smooth material, each a prayer to the Faceless God that only Gorren remembered.

Gorren’s relief was short-lived. The fire-child flew between the smoke like a blind firefly. She pinwheeled and somersaulted, zigzagged and corkscrewed, all the while screaming wildly and throwing fireballs around. There was no aim in her fly, no purpose, and Gorren quickly understood why.

“Argus!”

The large mouse clung at the fire-child’s face, blinding her even as he held on for dear life. A halo of faint white light surrounded his furry form, probably the only reason why he wasn’t burned to a crisp yet.

Gorren was stunned, his hand unconsciously running to his empty shoulder. Argus had to have jumped down sometimes during all that craziness. Still, that fire-thing was a powerful, untamed entity. For Argus to be able to keep her at bay like that, he had grossly underestimated the magical creature’s growth.

A blast shook him out of those thoughts.

He threw a tense glance at the rippling wall of the Crucible, and dashed towards it. As much as he loathed leaving Argus alone against the fire-thing, he had to secure the portal first and foremost. He mentally promised again and again that he would shower the mouse in treats once all this business was done. He was probably the only reason why the Crucible hadn’t been hit yet.

He was halfway to his goal, when the fire-child snapped. Throwing a roar that bathed the chamber in heat, she exploded into a ball of molten fury, throwing fireballs everywhere at once.

“No!”

Gorren threw a hand toward the Crucible, launching his Mana to form a desperate shield. The shimmering barrier formed barely in time to stop a fireball from reaching the portal, the projectile exploring into fragments against it.

Somehow, the fire-child seemed to perceive that. Her head snapped in his direction, mouth twisted into a sneer.

Still holding out a hand coated in light, Gorren sneered back. He saw that Argus was unharmed if a little singed. The rodent had slipped to the fire-child's shoulder, where he clung, squeaking weakly.

Gorren felt a surge of relief, but it lasted only for a moment. Then anger drowned it.

He was done being gentle.

Drawing himself to his full, even if small, height, he lifted both hands in the air. Spectral flames licked his fingers. The golden of his eyes surged into a wrathful flame, the sclera seeming to turn molten. The rising smoke bent away from where he stood, leaving him at the center of a bubble of unnaturally clear air.

For the first time, the fire-child hesitated, her angry sneer faltering for a moment. But then she seemed to repulse any fear. Lifting her face toward the ceiling, she shouted at the top of her lungs, the sheer force of her voice blasting the smoke from the entire chamber and sending Argus hurtling into the air. The mouse smacked against an overturned torso with a squeak, scrambled atop the stone and remained to watch.

The fire-child shot toward Gorren like a meteor, her fire enclosing her into a single ball of raging flame.

Gorren didn’t back down. Snarling, fingers curled into hooks, he slashed the air with a furious gesture. A wave of power was unleashed by that movement, blasting the fire-child and stopping her momentum. She crossed her arms before herself as she tried to resist, her flame mane whipping around her like hair caught into a storm. She managed not to be blasted away, but the moment the pressure lessened enough for her to see again, Gorren was already zipping toward her.

The mage brought an aura-enclosed fist against the surprised fire-child. He’d have liked to knock her straight out, but his small height forced him to bring his blow against her side. The impact unleashed a blast of light, sending the fire-child corkscrewing away with a scream.

Riding the currents of Mana, Gorren followed her, and grabbed her arm. He yanked the fire-child back, reversing the momentum with Mana-enhanced strength and sending her slamming against the floor in a scattering of scorched debris and pieces of burned carpet. The fire-child let out a choked scream, and before she could recover, Gorren landed over her back, knocking the breath out of her lungs. Grabbing her wrist, she pinned her down while holding her face against the floor. The fire mane burned brightly, but to his Mana-enhanced skin it didn’t feel different from normal hair, nor the abnormal heat raising from the fire-child body could do much more than be slightly irritating.

“Now you’re going to calm down.” He hissed. “And then, you and i are going to have a nice and long chat.”

In all answers, the fire-child launched a shrill scream that sent spikes of pain through his eardrums and started to wriggle savagely. Before he could as much as blink, she raised her free arm and shooted a fireball, blindly.

Right toward the Crucible.

“No!” Gorren shouted and knocked her out with a blow to the back of the head.

Too late. The fireball impacted against the shimmering portal, disappearing into it with an explosion of sparks.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then everything started to shake.

Dust fell from the crumbling statues and the ceiling. Debris clattered and trembled against the floor. The dizzying colors of the Crucible jumbled and bobbed like a restrained beast trying to escape.

Throwing one after the other the most exotic curses he knew, Gorren grabbed the fire-child and made a run for where Argus stood frozen. He managed only to throw himself, his load and the rodent behind some rubble that all hell broke loose.

A wave of power howled across the chamber, smashing to pieces everything that remained standing yet. It rippled again and again, until Gorren felt like a giant was beating an enormous drum over his head. The walls curved outward, then inward, space itself being sent out of order from the raging energies. The angles of the chamber were slipping out of alignment when Gorren covered his eyes and Argus’. Plane shifting wasn’t for mortal eyes to see and remain whole.

A terrible weight crushed him to the floor like the same giant was trying to flatten him with his hand. Argus squeaked in distress, and he used what little leverage he still had to clutch him closer. Frustratingly, he couldn’t do much more.

The pressure kept increasing until he was sure his bones would break, then slackened all at once. Gasping for air, he groped blindly for Argus, feeling his furry form trembling wildly. The fire-child was still knocked out cold.

Gorren felt himself falling. He was flattened against the floor, could feel the cold rock against his cheek and pebbles scraping his knees, but still, he was sure he was falling down into an endless abyss. His stomach fluttered with the sensation, bile rising, and he gritted his teeth.

Somewhere, something enormous smashed against something just as great, and the blow sent a tremor to rattle his teeth.

And then everything ended.

Gorren sucked a stuttering breath. He felt like a branch thrown into a storm. Slowly, checking himself and finding nothing broken, he got up.

The storm of energies had passed, leaving the chamber in complete shambles. Dust hung thickly into the air. Everything was silent.

Gorren coughed once and tasted blood. Well, at least he was still alive. The same could be said of the fire-child and Argus, both knocked out cold but breathing.

Gorren swept the dust from the air with a wave of his hand, eager to see the damage.

Relief surged in him. The Crucible was still there The portal shimmered with his dancing colors, just like it had always done. Even reaching with his mind, he didn’t find anything out of the norm. The source of his material, the gift of his God, it was still there, still whole.

What a relief!

Then he noticed the new portal.

No multicolored chaos poured from it, no sensations of sublime ascension into the fundamental substance of the cosmos. It was only a ragged hole in the wall, and from it poured out the light of the summer sun. Gorren heard birds chirping, and the wind rustling between leaves.

“No, it cannot be.” He murmured, advancing toward it. His legs felt weak, his hands trembled, but he still kept going, pushed by a bad feeling knotting his guts.

Before he realized what he was doing, he was running. Light washed over him as he stepped over the threshold, blinding him for a moment. When vision returned, he found himself between verdant trees.

No no no no…

He whirled around like he was surrounded by enemies. In the sky, clear like a sheet, the sun peeked between clouds that seemed made out of cotton. Under his feet, the grass felt pleasant and soft. He could smell the scent of pollen in the air, could hear the buzz of insects and the chirping of birds.

“Curse you all, you goddamn bastards!” He screeched, grasping at his beard. Peaking between the undergrowth, a rabbit gave him a quizzical look before disappearing again.

Gorren ignored it. He ignored his still steaming beard, his burns aching under the light and everything else surrounding him. He just kpet shouting his curses into the summer sky and jumping like a kid during a tantrum.

Because, thanks to his thrice-damned luck, now there was a hole in his lair, connecting it straight to the Material Plane.